I am thinking of starting a homeschool/co-op for preschoolers in my area. I have a 28 month old with fatal food and contact allergies to dairy, eggs and nuts, so even just being around people who eat those items can make him break out. That has led me to consider homeschooling and I am liking the idea more and more.

I am putting together a meet-up/get-together for tots in the area about age 2-3. Thinking that we will have some structure but not much. For example, free play, activity, free play. But I am not sure what to do for the activity time. I figured maybe a story circle or music, but what else could be done?

When my kids were that age (I had 2 close in ages) we used to make edible finger paint, it was something fun them to do and still safe enough for people obsessed with sticking things in their mouths! I don't know if this is messier than what you had in mind, but the little ones sure enjoy it.

What you need:
• Any kind of flavored Jello
• Boiling water
What to do:
Mix Jello into boiling water until it is a goo consistency for finger paint. Use normal finger painting material or glossy paper. Kids love the smell and feel of it.

I know I have more activities somewhere. I'll dig through my bookmarks and post again when I track them down._________________Dawn

I took my son to a place called KinderMusik when he was 2 and they had this simple group activity which all the little ones loved. The teacher would place lots of finger puppets in the middle and all the kids sat around in a cirlcle with their mums, each kid picked out a puppet. then the teacher went around the room and asked each child what puppet they had (usually they were animals - rabbit, turtle, lion, etc) and what noise they make or what they can do (jump, fly, skip, etc) kids could just make up anything fun they liked and everybody had to join in doing the same action with their puppets or making the same noise.
here is a site with some ideas on making your own finger puppets
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/finger-puppets.html

another one they also loved was playing with multi-colored scarves - each kid would grab one and dance, jump twirl, etc with their scarves to music.

an excellent exercise for balancing is placing a skipping rope on the floor and getting kids to try and walk on it. they can pretend it's a path or a bridge or something, you can incorporate it into some pretend game.

That is so fascinating! My neighborhood is also starting a preschool/homeschool co-op in our area. I would love to hear how everything has been going since April. We are starting up in about two weeks and I'm not having very much luck finding materials on the plethora of homeschooling websites I have bookmarked.

When my kids were that age (I had 2 close in ages) we used to make edible finger paint, it was something fun them to do and still safe enough for people obsessed with sticking things in their mouths! I don't know if this is messier than what you had in mind, but the little ones sure enjoy it.

What you need:
• Any kind of flavored Jello
• Boiling water
What to do:
Mix Jello into boiling water until it is a goo consistency for finger paint. Use normal finger painting material or glossy paper. Kids love the smell and feel of it.

I know I have more activities somewhere. I'll dig through my bookmarks and post again when I track them down.

I have done preschool co-op with 3 of my children and have loved the results. I loved doing centers with them, so they could rotate through some fun activities and I could work with one group on a more individal basis (good for a more difficult activitiy). Some center ideas are: blocks, fingerpainting, play-dough, small-manipulatives, magnet letters on a cookie sheet, lacing cards, puzzles, matching games, dry erase boards, etc) Then you could do an art activity with the small group that is with you._________________Get free, done for you, lesson plans at
http://www.instantpreschoollessons.com

I usually do a lot of creative stuff with my little one.
One of his favourite activities is painting Eggshells.
I usually stick an eggshell over a skewer, and put the other end in a sliced piece of potato (as stand).
Whichever way he paints it, it ends up looking nice.